641 – Espen Engh on Greyhounds and Judging
Espen Engh on Greyhounds and Judging
Host Laura Reeves is joined from Norway by famed breeder and judge Espen Engh of Jet’s Greyhounds for a two part conversation about Greyhounds, judging, breeding and why the Scandinavian dogs are so consistent in quality.
Int. Ch. Jet’s Elegant Negress, Engh’s first Best in Show winner from his first litter.
“I kind of inherited the interest for dogs in general and Greyhounds in particular because my mother started up with a Greyhound in 1955 so she was the source of everything,” Engh said. “She got her own mother hooked on the Greyhounds as well. So I’m a third generation Greyhound fancier and lover.
“My mother was only a teenager when she started out. She was very quickly bitten by the bug and started showing her first Greyhound all over Scandinavia. She didn’t breed, however, she didn’t have the possibility to do that. So my mother and I started breeding Greyhounds, 20 years after she got her first one, in 1975. And although my mother is no more with us, I keep reading from the same strain, actually from the same bitch line that was started in the early ‘70s.
“There are many things that make the Greyhounds unique. And one of them is their long, long, long history and the amount of generations that have gone into breeding greyhounds. I’m quite sure that the Greyhound is the only breed where you can actually trace the pedigrees back to the 1700s.
“(The first description of the Greyhound as having the “head of a snake, the neck of a drake”) is from a poem that was attributed to a woman called Juliana Burners more than 500 years ago.
Ad for one of Engh’s multiple BIS winning Greyhounds.
Actually, she didn’t exist. So it’s somebody else wrote it. But that you could say is kind of the first Greyhound standard, because it describes the Greyhound, the head, the neck, the feet in a poem. Greyhounds are a very sophisticated breed. They are very close to their owners. They are about a combination of substance with elegance.”
Engh has been invited to judge at the highest levels worldwide.
“It certainly is a privilege. It’s certainly something very enjoyable to be able to travel around, somebody else picking up your bill, to enjoy looking at dogs, feasting your eye on dogs, getting that little tear in your eye every now and then, maybe a goose bumps every now and then too, which is really one of the reasons for doing it.
“But it does also present some challenges and some difficulties. Some breeds do have very different breed standards and that can certainly pose some difficulties. Other breeds, actually the breed standards themselves are not that different, but the development of the breeds are. So they have developed in quite different directions.
“Obviously, and I think we need to state that from the beginning, if you are willing and able and do undertake judging a breed in a foreign country, you have to respect the breed standard in that country. I mean, that should go without saying, but it doesn’t always.”
638 – Juniors’ Best Advice: Always Strive to Improve
Juniors’ Best Advice: Always Strive to Improve
Octavia Stensen, Best Junior at Westminster Kennel Club this year, joins host Laura Reeves for the behind the scenes story of how a non-dog show kid just capped off the triple crown of junior showmanship, having also won Best Junior at the AKC National Championship and made finals in Juniors at Crufts.
Stensen’s family acquired a Norwegian Buhund when she was 10 years old. Her first time in the ring left her in tears, but she persevered and nine years later she reached the pinnacle of the sport for juniors.
“We ended up getting Fiona and she became our new pet but the one catch of it was that we had to get her grand champion,” Stensen said. “I was like, ‘I’ll do it. I don’t even know what that means but I will do it. I don’t even know what this entails or what I’m doing in this, but I am going to do it.’ And so it started from there and it wasn’t easy by any means.
“I went to bed that night (after my first ring experience) thinking, I can do better and I can do better here and I could have done this and I’m gonna do that next time,” Stensen said. “And there was a next time, you know what I mean? There was like that idea of the future.
“I did eventually get her Grand and she is now our pet and we have since then bred her and got my heart dog out of that, Pineapple.
Octavia Stensen with her mom and Pineapple after the WKC Best Junior win.
“I am so, so lucky both my mom and my dad have been so supportive, but my mom really steps up. My dad is like, I’ll pay the bills, but my mom is like, I’m going to be here next to you and I’m going to travel with you to all of these things and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.
“They have definitely supported me in more ways than I could have ever, ever asked for. I mean, after winning at Orlando and walking out of the ring and then being like, so I guess I need to go to London now. And they were like, ‘okay, so let’s figure out how we’re going to finance that.’
Stensen’s advice to juniors coming up is always have fun and never stop improving.
“It is so, so hard to get caught up in the competition and freaking yourself out and getting all nervous but this is meant to be fun. It’s all for fun. We are coming to these things to have a good time, we’re not coming to these things to torture ourselves with nerves. Listen to your mentors and your peers and you can always be better. You can consistently improve. I mean, there’s never a moment in your life where you can stop getting better at things.”
622 – CRUFTS! Preview with breeder, exhibitor, judge Sharon Pinkerton
CRUFTS! Preview with breeder, exhibitor, judge Sharon Pinkerton
Sharon Pinkerton with one of her 66 champion GWP.
Sharon Pinkerton, Bareve GWP, joins host Laura Reeves to preview the Crufts dog show held in Birmingham, England on March 7-10.
Pinkerton, who was raised with Greyhounds and English Cocker Spaniels, will judge Spinoni Italiano and the Breeders Competition finals at the show.
“Originally launched on 15 January 2009, the prestigious breeders’ competition, sponsored by Agria Pet Insurance, gives breeders the opportunity to showcase their skills and knowledge as a breeder,” according to the Crufts website. “Each year a number of qualifying heats take place at general and group championship shows. Teams compete to gain points by being placed between 1st – 4th.
The top 40 teams will qualify for the final at Crufts, of which two positions will be for the breeders’ competition winners from the European and world dog shows.”
“I’ve judged German Wirehaired Pointers (at Crufts) a long time ago. And I’ve also judged Hungarian Wirehaired Vizslas. But this has been a little while since I’ve been asked to judge at Crufts. And certainly the first time I’ve been asked to do anything like the breeders (competition).
“It is still quite a new competition. I’m probably the first true exhibitor that’s been asked to judge it. The last four years have been top all-rounders where they’ve had breeding experience but they are more considered now to be an all-round judging person as such rather than still a breeder exhibitor. So I feel quite special really to be at that level.
“I think that’s what I’m looking forward to most is actually doing that because I know it’s such an achievement to be asked. When I first got the email invite and I opened it and looked and I just thought no this is a mistake people like me we don’t get invited for these sort of things. I dutifully sent it back thinking it would just come back saying ‘I’m really, really sorry Sharon, but it was wrong.’ But it came back as yes, you’re now confirmed.”
Sharon decided German Wirehaired Pointers were the breed for her and acquired one from the second litter ever born in the UK. Since the mid ‘70s she has produced 66 champions, of which 12 are full champions, where the dogs have proven their ability in the field as well as the show ring.
“Dogs that have a job to do are considered to be show champions until they’ve actually been out in the field to prove their gun dog worthiness,” Pinkerton said, “plus of course the Border Collie which is the only herding breed that are show champions until they actually go and prove their ability to herd.
Champion Bareve Blaauboskom JW in the field.
“So all the gun dogs, no matter what breed they are, are all show champions unless you then go out into the field and prove that they are capable of doing the job that they were bred to do. And then we can proudly knock off the show bit and then they become full champions.
Listen in to the entire interview for more details and insights about the famous Crufts dog show.